Ambala mercy home owner booked for obstructing govt work

Ambala: On the complaint of Gurdev Singh, member district child welfare committee (CWC),

The Ambala City police have registered a case against Philip Lal Masih, the owner of the illegal mercy home near village Kalarheri from where the district child welfare committee (CWC) and the district administration had rescued 25 children on November 21.

The case was filed on the complaint of CWC member Gurdev Singh.

On December 5, the CWC team had rescued another 17-year-old girl who was still kept inside the premises of the mercy home despite facing closure from the district administration.

While talking to TOI Gurdev Singh said, “During our first inspection on September 21, there were total 31 children at the mercy home and later on November 21, when our team along with the district administration went to rescue the children, we had rescued only 25 and whereabouts of the remaining 6 children were unknown. We had sought the records of all the children kept at the mercy home from the owner Philip, but he didn't give any information.”

“Later, on November 26, Philip along with the parents of some of the rescued children had come to our office in Ambala City, where he misbehaved, abused our team members and had also threatened us of dire consequences if we do not hand over the children to him. He had interrupted official proceedings at the government office premises and had also disobeyed the orders of the government official by way of using criminal force in a pre-planned manner. We had complained against Philip on the same day to the additional director general of police, district superintendent of police, and Ambala City SHO to take relevant action as per”, said Gurdev.

The CWC has sought Social Investigation Report (SIR) from the CWCs of the other states and the districts from where the rescued children actually belong in order to send them back to their parents. The CWC takes further action to hand over the children to the parents, after obtaining the SIR from their respective areas and counseling of the parents.

The children, who were rescued belong to Ambala, Gurugram, Samana, Delhi, Ghaziabad, Budaun, Rishikesh and other places.

On December 5, parents of three rescued children hailing from Rishikesh visited CWC office to take them back. The children aged between four to 17 years were staying in the mercy home but the CWC had the details of only two of their children while one of them was missing. Then, the CWC went to mercy home from where they rescued the 17-year-old girl.

Gurdev said, “Philip did not give any information about this girl to the CWC. We only came to know about her after the parents had approached us to take back their children. There are still 5 children about whom we do not have any information but they were present in the home during our first inspection on September 21.”

Ambala City SHO inspector Ajit Singh said, “We have booked the accused Philip under section 186, 353, 504, and 506 of the Indian Penal Code and investigation into this case is ongoing. So far, no arrest has been made in this case.”